INSULIN PENS SCARCE AS MANUFACTURER PUTS PROFIT BEFORE PEOPLE

Tue 16 July 2024:

Manufacturers are prioritising profits over the lives of patients, says South African Medical Associations’s (SAMA) chairperson, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa. This as the public healthcare system ran out of insulin pens, crucial for those living with diabetes.

Mzukwa was speaking in an interview with Salaamedia on Tuesday. He said the shortage of insulin pens was affecting not just SA, but other low income countries as well.

The shortage was sparked when Novo Nordisk, the sole contract holder, decided against renewing its contract with the government, which expired in May. It cited “manufacturing capacity limitations” as it gave priority to weight-loss drugs, reports The New York Times.

Describing the unfortunate situation as “tragic”, Mzukwa said the hope was that a new contractor will step in. However, in the interim, patients would have to resort to insulin vials.

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“We hope somebody will come and fill that gap. In the meantime, what should be happening is that we should be switching over from pens to vials, because we can’t allow a situation where people go without insulin.”

But the problem is that the more time-consuming vial, as opposed to the popular insulin pen, will require patients to be trained to use it. “Most of those people living with diabetes are not used to this – some have never seen the vial,” he said.